Rivalry
by Merks
Summary: To Sasuke, Gaara is the petulant school bully, wailing on Naruto left and right. But really, Gaara can barely contain his urge to stop covering for the real threat, and protect the one student that he can't seem to forget about.


**If this gets good reviews, it's permanent. Otherwise, it follows Vendetta to the back of my mind on a long and indefinite hiatus. Be sure to let me know.**

The final bell of the day rang, and a flurry of students flooded from each classroom, the halls suddenly filled with noise. A blonde, one eye bruised with purples and blacks, raced from his classroom, passing his locker and backtracking a bit. He seemed to struggle with the combination multiple times before a pale hand snaked in from behind him and opened his locker with four expert flicks of his wrist. "How sad is it that I can open your locker better than you can, Naruto?" The blonde's best friend Sasuke Uchiha asked, leaning against the locker next to his.

A pink tongue emerged from soft red lips, a grunt following. "Screw you. You know I can only see from one eye." Was the younger boy's response.

Sasuke frowned. "Gaara beat you up again?" Silence. "Idiot. Stop antagonizing that jerk. He's... brooding. Bad news."

"It's not like I try to! I look at him even once for a single second and next thing I know, his fist is coming at me via my peripherals."

"Talk to a teacher."

"No! They'll call home, and then they'll know I'm living alone. As far as everyone knows, I got in a brawl with a man over a girl, okay?"

"But you don't _like_ girls."

"No one else knows that, and if you tell them, I _will_ kill you." Naruto hissed, slamming his locker with his backpack clutched tightly in his fists.

"Naruto, I worry about you. I promised Shikamaru that I'd keep you safe while he was away in Japan."

"That was stupid. You know I'm accident prone."

Sasuke was near shouting. "That's exactly why you don't need Gaara wailing on you every time he needs to vent!"

Naruto was about to retort with a sharp punch to his best friends jaw when a pair of smoldering, anger-ridden jade eyes stopped him in his tracks. "Naruto. We need to talk."

-

"I'm really worried about him." Sasuke mumbled, absently stirring his coffee.

"Unfortunately, worry will get you nowhere. Sure, it'll show you care, but other than that..."

"Itachi, I don't need another one of your emotion lectures." He leaned back in his chair, sighing delicately and moving the phone to his other ear. "I just need advice."

"As you always seem to need from your older brother." Itachi sighed, and there was a rustling sound. "Always, always, always." There was the click of a lighter, and then silence. A moment later, Itachi exhaled on a sigh.

"I thought you'd quit smoking..."

"I had. But it's too hard, so I took it back up." Itachi chuckled. "Now, what do _you_ think you should do about this Naruto/Gaara business?"

Sasuke sighed, exasperated. "I'm in a rut! That's why I called you. I always call you when I'm in a rut."

"You _only_ call me when you appear to be in a rut." His elder brother had a twinge of a smile in his voice. "Whenever I see your number on the caller ID, I think 'what does my little otouto need this time?'."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you have even some vague idea..."

"All I can tell you is to leave it alone for now. I think that if you tell on Gaara, Naruto could get kicked out. You know that students aren't supposed to live alone. If they find out, Naruto could very well be expelled. And if Naruto is fine with the beatings for now, then so should you. It's Naruto's problem, no matter how close the two of you are."

Sasuke sighed, knowing in his heart that his brother told the truth. "I hate your logic."

"It would seem that everyone does."

-

Gaara shoved Naruto into a wall of lockers in the Senior wing of the high school, Naruto grunting as his back made contact with with one of the combination dials. First hour classes had just begun, and the halls were completely empty. "What were you and Uchiha talking about yesterday?" He growled, hand fisted in the front of the blondes uniform.

"I didn't say anything, Gaara." Naruto vowed, struggling slightly.

"I heard you. You were talking about me."

"I didn't tell him anything. I swear." Naruto persuaded, shuddering lightly as Gaara's face nuzzled into his neck. "He still thinks you're beating me up."

Gaara chuckled, low and soft, licking the length of Naruto's clavicle. "What, and bruise this delicate skin?"

Naruto hitched in a breath, pressing himself further against the cool metal of the lockers. "Ga-Gaara, we're in-"

"School. I know." Gaara was showing Naruto's neck a great deal of attention, pressing himself close, boxing the teenage blonde in. "And we're alone."

"B-but if someone comes..." Naruto whispered breathily, his hands clutching at Gaara's blazer. "What if-..."

"Then they'll see what a pretty whore you are." Gaara gave the skin right behind his ear a final lick and let go of his shirt, leaving Naruto disheveled and flushed. "Fix yourself and get to class."

Naruto brushed out his shirt and sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Fuck..."

-

"Shoot me now." _Not happening, no way, nuh-uh._

"Just eat it!" Kankuro laughed, his eyes wide and interested.

"Don't yell in public places." _This is not going to happen._

"You're just dodging the matter at hand. Just eat the damn thing!"

"I hate squid, you bastard!"

"You foul mouthed little shit!"

"Shh!"

Kankuro cringed as his little brother reprimanded him. "Fine. Don't eat your stupid squid. I'm just trying to reunite you with your lost heritage."

"You're bullshitting me. Not everybody in Japan eats squid." Gaara argued.

"They do too."

"It's not a staple of the diet."

"Just about."

"Where are you getting these facts?"

"Where are _you_ getting these facts?"

Gaara rolled his eyes, giving up on the conversation. He mindlessly pushed the squid around the platter with the chopsticks, sighing. Maybe thrice a month, Kankuro would force him out to a Japanese restaurant in the local Malls food court. He claimed that it was such a shame that he had to grow up in America. "Sooo..."

"How's school?"

"What?"

"I asked you, how's school?"

"Did Temari put you up to this?" Gaara let skepticism flood his words.

"No, I really care." There was utter silence as Gaara stared wordlessly at his brother. "Okay, really, Temari asked me to talk to you about school."

"See? Wouldn't it have been easier to have told me that in the first place?" Gaara asked.

Kankuro ignored him. "Answer me, please."

"School is fine. I'm learning everything that a Junior should be learning. Science kind of sucks, because I'm still wondering at how the hell I got into forensic biology. My original plan was to take chemistry."

"You know what I'm talking about."

Gaara was silent. "No, I'm fine. Neji found a new punching boy." He sighed, imagining the injuries that he took blame for on the canvas of Naruto's skin.

"Oh. Well, that's great! I mean, not for the other boy, but at least you're not getting your ass beat any more. Luck to the poor kid that replaced you."

"Yeah… Luck."

**Well, this is it. The trial chapter. Really, if you like it, please, tell me.  
Hopefully, really, hopefully, I'll see you next chapter.**


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